Love: in the highest sense
by C.B. Magique
Summary: Little Sora wants to know what love is, so that he can apply it to his everyday relationships.


**I found this recently... and I don't remember where I was going with it, so I decided to just upload what I found as it was.**

* * *

**Love… In The Highest Sense**

* * *

"I love you," Sora heard his father whisper to his mother in the doorway before he went off to work in the morning. Sometimes he also heard it when he came back. It was usually accentuated with some significant touching; they stood close to embrace each other and rubbed noses or lips together.

One day, after his dad left with the sweet words, he sought out his mother. She was already settling down in her workspace, surrounded by her patterns and fabric as she mended a vest for a client. He carefully stepped around the little bits of rags, pins, and scissors that were sometimes left unchecked on the floor and tugged on her elbow.

"Yes, sweetie?" she answered absentmindedly, more focused on her stitching.

"Mum, what does 'I love you' mean?"

She turned to him curiously and put her work down. "It means that, well… it means that you love someone when you say that to them."

"What's love, exactly?"

His mother sighed and leaned back in her chair, twirling a brown curl around her finger as she contemplated the answer and how to express it to a four-year-old. "Love is when you feel great affection for someone. It's when someone gives you a warm feeling so deep that it comes right from your heart and you know in your whole soul that you would do anything for that person."

"Okay," Sora said, satisfied with that answer before his mother had more time to elaborate. He turned around and ran out of the room to catch up on playing with his toys.

* * *

Playing piano was his dad's main hobby after work and Sora loved to watch. The skill with which his fingers moved on the keys looked like magic and the music sheets were like cryptic runes of untold wonder. Every night his father weaved spells from the pages of his music books that conjured portals into imaginary new worlds. Being jostled by his dad's elbow while he played didn't bother Sora much so long as he had the vantage of sitting on the piano stool with him but when he turned the page of his book and began a new piece that was slow and quiet the boy was quickly reminded of something that was very important that morning.

"Dad, why do you say 'I love you' to mum all the time?"

"That's a big question, why the sudden curiosity?" his father chuckled, not even ceasing his playing when he looked at his son. He knew this piece mostly off by heart. "I say it because I love your mother. I care about her a lot. Love is what you feel for the things that are the most important to you in the whole world."

"How do you know that something is the most important to you? Like, what if I wanted to love something but I don't know how important it is to me?"

His dad laughed at Sora's backwards logic and explained: "actually, when you feel love is how you know that something is the most important to you. I think everybody feels love in a different way but usually people describe it as being warm right in your heart."

"Oh… okay."

The piece finished with a gentle rallentando. The final notes lingered in an atmosphere that had been stilled to serenity. The afterglow was savoured for as long as it felt natural, even by Sora's mother. She quietly snuck up on them and wrapped her arms around her husband, resting her head on his shoulder. He put his hands over hers and leaned back into her embrace.

"Dinner's ready," she said, turning to give Sora a smile. "I hope you're hungry."

"Yeah!" Sora grinned, eagerly jumping off the piano stool to run to the kitchen. He turned back briefly to see if his parents were coming too and caught them pressing their lips together intimately.

* * *

The teacher had all of the children sitting in a group while up on her whiteboard were colourful magnets of different faces and words in coloured marker. It was a lesson about feelings and how to express them. She had just read a book to them about telling others how you felt and the lesson on the board had all of the major emotions covered. In her mind, nothing could possibly go wrong.

"So, now we know some of the words for feelings but not all of them. Are there any other feelings that you can think of?" she asked, beaming.

Sora put his hand up. The teacher kept smiling but inside said a prayer to deliver her from this torture. Sure, Sora was a lovely boy but he was dense, distractible, too charismatic for his own (or anyone else's) good, and his questions tended to be obtuse. "Yes, Sora?"

"You didn't write love up there," the little boy declared. "Love is a feeling too, right?"

"Yes, that's true," the teacher said, sighing with relief when, for once, Sora's contribution was actually constructive. "Can you explain 'love' to the class?"

Rather than Sora, it was the pale, silver-haired boy who piped up: "'Love' is just like 'like'. It's when you like something but the feeling is really strong. It's a different level of 'like', a higher level that can only be achieved intimately."

"Well, yes," the teacher conceded. She was still getting around to getting that particular child elevated a grade. He'd entered school late, leading her to expect a child who was slow or rowdy but Riku was quiet, mature and perceptive. Sometimes it creeped her out a little bit. "That's true, Riku. Love is a very complex emotion, it can be like a number of different feelings all mixed together but it's basically when you like someone or something on a different level to everything else you like. Those things are the most important to you and sometimes it's very hard to be without them. Can you think of things that you might love?" she opened the question to the entire class. "You might love your family or your pets."

Various students throughout the class announced suggestions at random – "I love my dog", "I love my bike", "I love my sister", etc. – but there were a few students remaining quiet, either out of shyness or lack of ideas. The teacher tried her best to shush the class and regain order.

"Now, now, remember the rules! When you want to speak, put your hand up." Several hands immediately went up. Strangely, Sora's didn't. He was instead looking at the floor with a finger to his cheek, deep in thought. It was less strange that Riku's hand didn't go up. Sometimes he seemed adverse to participation. However, there was one student who always worried her: the new girl, Kairi. She huddled away at the back of the class and usually only ventured out with Sora and Riku. Right now she was sitting between them, staring into the middle distance with a melancholic expression. "Kairi, what sort of things do you love?"

She ignored the quiet groans and frantic arm waving of other students wanting to be picked instead as Kairi looked at her. Her eyes widened fractionally in alarm.

"I didn't put my hand up."

"But I still want to hear from you, sweetie. I don't hear from you often."

Kairi looked down at the floor and frowned. "I don't love anything. I don't have anything to love."

Sora gasped and he stared at her in shock. "That can't be true!"

"Maybe we should hear other examples?" suggested the teacher. "Tidus, what do you love?"

The blond quietly cheered for himself upon being picked while beside him his best friend, Wakka, pouted. "I love swimming!"

"How can you love swimming? That's not a thing," another student said.

"It's not a person or an object but you can love activities too," the teacher explained. "It's all about how they make you feel."

"Is it really?" Sora inquired, staring at the teacher inquisitively. "So, feeling is the most important thing, nothing else?"

"Yes, that's what we've been saying."

"Then I love Riku."

The teacher's jaw dropped. She blinked hard and shook her head. Riku had also turned to stare at Sora with comically wide eyes. "Okay… I suppose that's valid but I don't think you should _say_ you love Riku…"

"Why not? Being with Riku makes me feel warm and happy inside and he's my best friend so he's super important to me. So I love Riku."

"Can boys love people who aren't girls?" Tidus asked, blinking rapidly at the revelation. "I mean, except your family because that's weird."

"I love Tidus," Selphie said, changing the answer she previously wanted to give about princess dolls, "because he's my best friend."

"Yeah, I love Tidus too," Wakka agreed. Tidus blushed and rubbed the back of his head.

"I love Luna!"

"I love Kris!"

The whole class burst into a cacophony of small children proclaiming their love for their best friends. The teacher groaned and tried once again to restore order as the room delved into chaos. Riku kept staring at Sora but his shock had died down to a neutral expression.

"Sora, it means something different when you say you love people, especially outside your family," he explained flatly.

"Why?"

And just like that Riku's lips tightened. He wouldn't say any more, perhaps out of fear that if he did, Sora would retract his proclamation.

"And I love you too, Kairi," Sora grinned, putting his hands on her shoulders.

Kairi stared at him wide-eyed. "But… why?"

"Because ever since I met you I thought you were special. You make me feel warm and happy and I care about you heaps. We're best friends too."

A well of warmth bubbled up inside Kairi and for the first time in a while a smile stretched across her face without a single ounce of effort. She put her hands on Sora's digging deep into her newfound well for the right way to respond.

"Oh… then, Sora, I think I love you too."

* * *

**A/N: Might bear mentioning: I think the classroom scene was supposed to take place a year after the scenes with Sora's family. Like I said, I don't remember what I was doing with this.**


End file.
